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TRENTON, N.J. – Police raided a New Jersey public housing complex Thursday where officials say a 7-year-old girl was gang raped, and arrested 27 people on outstanding warrants. Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer said the pre-dawn sweep of Rowan Towers was planned before the girl’s attack. He said police hope the arrests will lead to tips that help them find those who assaulted the girl, otherwise the arrests were unrelated to the case. “This is only the beginning,” Palmer said. “We’re not going to rest until that area is cleaned up so that decent people can live without the threat of fear and violence.” Police say the child’s 15-year-old stepsister sold her to have sex with as many as seven men and boys at a party Sunday in a vacant apartment near their home. The stepsister was arrested and charged with aggravated sexual assault, promoting prostitution and other crimes. The teen’s name was not released because of her age, but the county prosecutor plans to ask the court to try her as an adult. It was not clear who was representing the girl in juvenile court. Police believe as many as a dozen people were at the party and say everyone in the apartment when the rape occurred could be legally culpable. There were security cameras at the complex and police said they were reviewing all available building surveillance videos. Many of those arrested Thursday were women. [via ASSOCIATED PRESS]

Rendell Receives Threatening Letter Demanding He Step Down Or Be ‘Removed’

HARRISBURG – Gov. Rendell is among at least 30 governors across the nation to receive a letter this week from an extremist group demanding that he resign, or face being “removed from office,” according to the Philadelphia office of the FBI. Rendell received the letter within the last 48 hours and immediately turned it over to federal authorities, said FBI Special Agent J.J. Klaver. Klaver said the letter is from a sovereign citizen group that is “advocating a plan to remove all state governors from office.” “These are individuals who reject all forms of government authority, and they believe they are emancipated from all the responsibilities associated with being U.S. citizens, such as paying taxes and obeying laws,” Klaver said. Klaver stressed that the letter did not advocate violence. “It did not say ‘We are going to kill you’,” said Klaver, “it said ‘You have to vacate your office or you will be removed from office’.” [via INQUIRER]

RELATED: The letters reportedly advise governors that, if they don’t resign, members of the group will “commandeer” their offices. It was received by the Capitol Police at noon Monday and immediately turned over to FBI investigators. The letters are apparently from an organization allied with Sovereign Citizens, which the Anti-Defamation League identifies as a collection of anti-government groups advocating an anarchist ideology. Its followers believe every level of government in the United States is illegitimate and should be eliminated. One of the ideology’s adherents was Terry Nichols, accomplice of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. MORE

Anti-Flash Mob Flash Mob Takes City Hall, Prays For The City

No fighting. No yelling. No running through the streets. Instead, there was a lot of praying and clapping among the almost 100 young adults and church leaders who gathered at City Hall today for a “prayer flash mob” to protest of the city’s recent wave of teen melees. Taking turns at the microphone, the teenagers and 20-somethings who spoke to the crowd decried the city’s rampaging youngsters, and asked God to set troublemakers on a peaceful path. “Whatever is going on in these young people’s lives that they feel like they have to go against us, we ask that you come into their lives, God,” asked 17-year-old Victoria Bennett, a student at West Philadelphia Catholic High School. “This is the city of brotherly love,” said Tatianna Lopez-Miller, 15, one of 13 who traveled to Philadelphia from Maryland with members of her church to take part in the gathering. “Lord, help us to show it.” [viaINQUIRER]

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